De-funking A Bit

I’m feeling much better after taking a break and spending time lounging with this couch potato.

I wish I could spend so many hours sleeping and laying around and still look as good as her – not fair. :-) Actually, no I don’t, I love being active. Especially when a sore ankle is not getting in the way. My ankle is feeling a lot better, hardly swollen. I’ve been icing it about twice a day with this wrap, after workouts and being on it for awhile and it seems to be helping.

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Also I’ve been spending time watching move TV, whatever movies are on, catching up with the DVR, etc. Taken and Away We Go are great movies, can’t recommend the new Friday the 13th though. It’s been a quiet weekend so far since hubby is still working way too much overtime, poor guy. I pulled a little bit of overtime myself spending 4 hours on my work laptop yesterday working on a project. Then I went to the mall with my mom intending to spend overtime funds. :-) I haven’t been to the mall in ages, spending money there just hasn’t been appealing to me lately. We spent a couple of hours checking out the Gap, Express, H&M, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Crate & Barrel, Payless Shoes and I just couldn’t get into the money spending mood no matter how hard I tempted myself. I ended up buying new clothes for hubby and a couple of cheap winter tops from Old Navy for myself. Pathetic, right? I tried on a bunch of sale items at H&M that looked okay, but I couldn’t justify even spending $5 – $10 on sale pieces partly because they seemed so cheaply made and I couldn’t really determine when I’d wear them.

I finally got my car detailed, which I’ve been meaning to do for longer than I care to admit, I was sure that ancient bird do-do was never coming off. Somehow, they got it off and my car almost feels new again. About as new as a 9-year-old car could feel, but nice not having a buildup of pet hair, my hair, dust and I don’t what to know what else inside. A definite mood lifter.

The last few days was all about easy eats since I was mostly eating by myself, lots of big salads I could remix and cooked vegan dishes I could get a few meals from.

This was a wonderful mess coated in Kristen Suzanne’s hemp nacho sauce and topped with home-grown bean sprouts. The bean sprout seed mix seems to have more bite and spice than alfalfa sprouts as well as a hardier texture, perfect with the cayenne kick in the nacho sauce.

Another monster salad topped with balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast and hemp seeds and served with an eggplant sauteed in a little olive oil and Italian seasoning. I’ve been trying, but I’m still having a hard time getting into raw eggplant. I think I need to try marinading it next time.

I steamed an entire spaghetti squash, scooped out the squash “meat” and sauteed with Trader Joe’s frozen artichoke hearts, tempeh chunks and a tomato pesto sauce I created in the Vita-Mix for a lonely Friday night dinner. The leftovers were great with shredded vegan mozzarella on top.

For lunch today, my sweet mom treated me to an Asian buffet I like because of the great vegan selection.

Sesame seaweed salad, edamame, picked veggie salad, vegan sushi and marinated tomatoes. They also had a great selection of fresh fruit for dessert. What was not so great was where we were seated. I try not to complain about people on this blog too much, but oh my! I got seated facing a guy who was, well, large. Very large. And he carried all his weight in the stomach area which prevented him from being able to close his legs when sitting. His crotch was wide open for everyone to see and I ended up sitting at an odd angle just to I wouldn’t have to look in that direction. Of course I still couldn’t keep from looking and he stayed there the entire time we were having what looked like his sons grab him more plates of food. I’m still trying to get that horrifying picture from my head. How does he …. ack, nevermind!

Moving on! After lunch I went to Costco against my better judgment. I’d been putting off the trip for two days and I knew I was in for it looking at the packed parking lot. There seemed to be an excessive amount of samples going on today for things like … butter, rice, and nuts. Sadly no wine tasting which I needed after 10 minutes into my shopping trip. Did they really need to sample Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches right near the laundry detergent? I got rammed into a wall of Tide by a women who really wanted that sample.

For dinner my plan was to go simple with a big salad topped with a Sunshine burger crumble.

I crisped and crumbled the patty over medium heat and simply topped a salad of spinach, tomatoes, carrots, sauerkraut and red cabbage for a very filling and tasty combo. So far, I think the Falafel and Southwest flavors are my favorite for the Sunshine patties, but they’ve become a staple in our freezer lately for both hubby and I.

Thankfully my sinuses are doing much better, no more pounding, splitting headaches. Our odd weather here probably triggered it, this morning was in the 50s and breezy feeling like fall. But tomorrow we’re supposed to have a high over 100 degrees again, just weird. This week is shaping up to be a quiet one with hubby working way too much overtime again. I’m hoping to get to more new recipes and be more creative in the kitchen since I’ll have plenty of time home alone and hopefully sans throbbing head pain.